EQUALITY?

Question: “As a manager in a global Financial Services business that employees over 200k people and has revenues of over $29bn US Dollars, I have seen a huge focus develop on ‘Gender Equality’, meaning that there are a number of initiatives and programs aimed at getting more women into senior positions in the firm, where they are statistically under represented. Do you think that such initiatives are valuable and, if so, what role can / should men play in supporting them? I ask as I while I am very ‘pro-equality’, through my work with the Women’s Network, I have increasingly heard phrases like “white men just don’t get it” and ‘there are too many pale, male and stale decision makers’ which makes me ask – is there an enormous double standard developing?”